St. Joseph and the Child

Bernini's invaluable 2D art piece, St. Joseph and the Child (1663), was transformed into a tactile 3D-printed sculpture that reflects his signature sculptural style. This rare, signed painting, currently housed in the Palazzo Chigi of Ariccia near Rome, showcases Bernini’s devotion to his Catholic faith and his dramatic artistic techniques.

​

To create the 3D sculpture, an AI was trained on Bernini's various sculptural styles; this was an iterative design process. Initially, a small-scale version was printed at around 6 inches, which allowed details to be refined before expanding to a half-scale model (half the size of the original painting). This larger version required printing in four parts, which were then carefully joined together to complete the sculpture.